In our many years of clinical practice, we have seen very little that we consider more important than helping people to quit the dangerous habits they have acquired. Among these habits that have a definite adverse effect on the body is smoking. While most people feel that this addiction is not easy to resolve, we do find it ultimately essential for those wanting to improve their overall health.

Our Smoking Cessation Program has helped many patients, but none more than those that truly have the desire to quit. The problem we see is that many who ask for help have not made the personal committment to quit. They come to our clinic and want us to simply ''make it go away''. We understand this, and know that no smoking cessation program will help those who do not make the sincere effort to quit. With this in mind, we work with each patient to identify the methods that will be most effective in helping them to initally reduce the urge to smoke, and then quit completely. We do have means to assist our patients that are having greater difficulty quitting.

The methods used in this clinic include the use of acupuncture, stress reduction, aversion therapy, and nutritional therapy. Acupuncture is used to control the desire placed on the body by nicotine abuse. The method of aversion therapy used is, by direct association of the agents with the body, causing the patient to resist the desire to smoke. Stress reduction includes the use of massage therapy. By relaxing the muscles of the body, bringing the patient to a more pleasant state, this allows the effects of the addicting chemicals to be reduced. Massage therapy also stimulates circulation and detoxification, which aids in the reduction of the toxins in the body. Nutritional therapy, through the use of homeopathic and naturopathic herbal formulations, assists the body's ability to detoxify more quickly.

We have found that a patient needs constant monitoring when there is an addiction of any type (food, drugs, medication, smoking or other). Our staff makes sure that the patient is followed closely enough during the initial periods of care to prevent relapse and failure when it is the highest.

In dealing with all addicitons, the aspects of psychological issues must be resolved as well if they are complicating the addiction. Those patients identified with higher stress levels that use smoking as a method of relaxation will see one of our doctors for consultation, where time is alloted, just to help them so that they may discuss and deal with their issues. If there are also physical problems in their health, we will work to correct these problems and as their health improves, their need for smoking will subsequently decrease.

In almost all case, we have found that it is necessary to change diet and add the appropriate natural supplements that will help the person make withdrawal as easy as possible.